1. Field of the Invention
The present general inventive concept relates to an image forming apparatus, and more particularly, to an image forming apparatus having an improved structure to clean a nozzle part.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, an ink jet image forming apparatus includes a nozzle part, which is installed at a lower part thereof, and a cartridge in which ink is contained. The ink in the cartridge is ejected onto a printing medium as a droplet.
In such an image forming apparatus, foreign substances, like ink remnants, may be collected in the nozzle part and may clog the nozzle part. Thus, ink ejection may be obstructed or ink may be improperly ejected onto the printing medium, thereby deteriorating image quality.
To solve the above problem, according to a conventional image forming apparatus, part of a printing ink in a cartridge is ejected through a nozzle part at a high pressure to clean the nozzle part.
However, in the conventional image forming apparatus, a printing ink loss is generated due to the cleaning process.
Further, the printing ink which has passed through the cleaning process cannot be reused for image forming because it has been already affected by heat, etc., and should be wasted by an additional device. 